Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Technology:Iron used for weapons and toolsHunting and gathering in JapanPainted grey ware developesGough's cave, Cheddar gorge and Somerset were used as hunting bases.Red slipped ware in use at Makne, Aore IslandArapus ware in use at Efate Island, Vanuatu

Governance:Rameses VII becomes PharaohRameses VIII becomes Pharaoh

Institutions:Fortified hilltop sites develop

Commerce:Assassination of Apheidas

1125 AD

Technology:First use of flying buttresses in construction of St. DenisIn Paris, Abbot Suger began the construction of the church of St. Denis in Gothic styleUnique Durham coins producedCotton garments widely used in Andes

Governance:Lothair III of Saxony crowned Holy Roman EmperorKing Henry V diesGane Becomes King of GhanaGeorgios IV becomes ruler of MakuriaDavid I becomes king of United ScotlandDeath of Henry IStephen Becomes King of EnglandMajanWagadou becomes King of Ghana

Institutions:The Knights Templar founded in JerusalemThe first Lateran Council condemns SimonyLalibela Established as capitol city of Christian EthiopiaDiet of WormsThe first Lateran Council condemns clerical marriageKingdom of Mapunguwe developsAbbot Suger begins the construction of the Church of St. DenisFountains Abbey, Yorkshire, founded by Benedictine MonksLeicester Abbey - St. Mary dePratis is foundedMint established at Durham

Commerce:Croatia unites with HungaryOrganized societies develop in the Hawaiian Islands

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Artifacts: For Iar 112 we were given the assignment of drawing five illuminated objects. After spending a lot of time drawing these objects I realized that these are not just artifacts, but they tell a story as well. It was really interesting to see how the words we were assigned for week one of this semester started to come together. I really enjoyed writing the little stories about each of my artifacts that I drew. I remembered a lot more about what they mean to me then I think about when I see them on a regular basis. It was also very interesting to see what other people drew and to hear about why they drew those items. In iar 221, we talked about Jules David Prown. He is famous for his studies on material culture which uses a lot of artifacts to learn about past cultures. He is famous for the works "Mind in Matter" and "Style as Evidence"

Stories: For Studio we had to each read a Grimm fairy tale. Reading the stories was fun, but looking closer into them and their meanings again helped me to tie together the words we were assigned this week. The Grimm fairy tales were stories that have been passed down from generation to generation and then eventually written down. The same stories have been translated in many different languages. These are some notes that i took when I read my fairy tale, which was "The Singing Bone"

Translations: I used the board that we made for studio about our fairy tales to represent the word translation. I chose to do this because translation has a lot to do with interpretation in my mind. What i put on my board is what i got out of the story, my interpretation, and by translating the story into images this is what i came up with.

Cycle: In history, or Iar 221, we talked a lot about cycles. We focused a lot of the design cycle. The two main people that we talked about when we covered the design cycle were Charles Edward Gray and A.L Kroeber. We talked about how history repeats itself, not only in architecture, but in music, fashion, and many other parts of life. We talked about Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin and their culture studies. This is based on three things, social, cultural and Philosophical aspects of life. We talked about the peaking point of different careers, which was somewhat shocking to find out that a historian does not peak until the age of eighty.

Multi view: In studio we watched the movie "A Midsummer Nights Dream" This is a good example of stories, artifacts, translations and multi view. It is a good example of multi view because we did in fact watch the movie rather than a live theatrical version of the story. Because it was a film we were able to see multiple views. We did not just see one angle of the scenes but every angle. With the cameras they could do close ups or different shots that they could not do when the play was first written and performed.

Another aspect of multi view could be the different views that people have on the same subject. For example Wotton sums up design in three parts in his book "The Elements of Architecture" the three parts are delight, commodity, and firmness. On the other hand Christian Norberg - Schulz describes design in four parts, Physical control, functional frame, social mileu, and cultural symbolization. Both of these thoughts have pretty much the same views, but are explained in two different ways.

After thinking about all the terms that we had for this week it is easy to see how they all fit together. Most stories contain multiple views, and artifacts of some sort. Almost all stories have different translations. Most novels are translated into many languages and many movies are translated. Stories go in cylces, many times the story comes back around in the end to where it began.

Another thing that I thought was interesting was the Illuminated Objects assignment because it made me think about how even the smallest things that seem so unimportant to one person can have such a special and interesting story or meaning to the next person.